1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to devices for baseball or softball practice hitting and, more particularly, is concerned with an automated batting tee apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One of the most difficult skills to master in playing either baseball or softball is hitting the ball. The batter must be able to coordinate the swinging of the bat with the location of the ball so that good contact can be made with the ball. Also, the batter must be able to make good contact with the ball at the various positions at which it may cross homeplate in the batter""s strike zone.
Good hitting takes lots of practice. A baseball tee is sometimes used to support a ball at the selected positions above the ground. The batter then hits the ball, after which the ball is retrieved and placed back on the tee for another practice swing. In this manner, the batter can practice swinging and improve hitting skills.
Various batting tees have been developed in the past for this purpose. However, in most cases, the tees require expenditure of considerable time, motion and energy just to manually replace a ball on the tee before each swing. This requirement takes away from the time and energy one has available to devote to practice hitting the ball. As a result, the use of manual baseball practice tees has not been widely accepted.
One recently developed automatic batting tee apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,124 to Pecoraro et al., which issued Sep. 30, 1997 and is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. This automatic batting tee apparatus includes a housing having a top opening, a chute for feeding balls one at a time to above the top opening, an externally threaded rotatable drive screw member mounted upright in the housing for rotation about a vertical axis aligned with the top opening, a drive motor drivingly coupled to a lower end of the drive screw member for selectively transmitting rotary motion thereto, and an elongated ball holder tube disposed upright in the housing surrounding the rotatable drive screw member and aligned with the top opening. The ball holder tube is drivingly engaged with the externally threaded rotatable drive screw member at an internally threaded lower end portion of the ball holder tube and coupled to the housing so that in response to rotation of the drive screw member by the drive motor in one and the other of opposite rotational directions the ball holder tube will undergo upward and downward reciprocal movement along the vertical axis relative to the rotating drive screw member through a ball receiving and positioning cycle.
This patented automatic batting tee apparatus alleviates the drawbacks associated with the prior art manual batting practice tees in that the user of this automatic apparatus does not have to manually place each ball on the batting tee thereby saving a considerable amount of motion, time and energy. Instead, a number of balls are placed in a hopper or ball feeder and fed by gravity one at a time onto the tee. Also, this automatic apparatus provides an actuation device in easy reach of the batter for the batter to actuate after each practice hit in order to reload the tee with a new ball.
While this patented automatic batting tee apparatus has functioned satisfactorily in achieving its intended purpose, after an initial period of use a need for improvement has been recognized to make the apparatus more cost-effective and durable and easier to operate so that its utilization as an aid to hitting practice will become more generally acceptable.
The present invention provides an automated batting tee apparatus designed to satisfy the aforementioned need. The automated batting tee apparatus of the present invention utilizes a belt and pulley drive mechanism for the ball holder tube which is located alongside and externally thereof, a base that rest on the ground, an enclosure having an inner shell mounted on the base and an outer shell slidably mounted over the inner shell and adjustable to different vertical positions relative to the inner shell and base to adjust the height of an upper end portion of the ball holder tube above the ground, a frame mounting the belt and pulley drive mechanism which, in turn, is supported on the outer shell of the enclosure, and a control mechanism that can be adjusted to selectively operate the drive mechanism in either of an automatic mode and a timed mode in moving the ball holder tube between ball receiving and hitting positions.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an automated batting tee apparatus which comprises: (a) a housing having a top opening and opposite upper and lower portions; (b) means for feeding balls one at a time to above the top opening of the housing; (c) an elongated ball holder tube disposed upright in the housing and aligned with the top opening of the housing, the ball holder tube having an upper end portion for receiving a ball from the ball feeding means and a lower end portion spaced below the upper end portion; (d) a drive mechanism arranged upright in the housing externally of and alongside and adjacent to the ball holder tube, the drive mechanism having a pair of upper and lower rotary elements rotatably mounted to the upper and lower portions of the housing and a flexible endless drive element extending over and between the upper and lower rotary elements and movable therewith such that the endless drive element has a pair of lengthwise portions spanning between the upper and lower rotary elements which move in opposite vertical directions relative to one another upon movement of the endless drive element, the ball holder tube being disposed closer to one of the lengthwise portions of the endless drive element than to the other of the lengthwise portions of the endless drive element; (e) a bracket connected to and movably carried by the one lengthwise portion of the endless drive element and extending laterally outward therefrom and connected to the lower end portion of the ball holder tube so as to support the ball holder tube in the upright position aligned with the top opening of the housing and adjacent to and alongside the endless drive element; and (f) drive motion producing means coupled to the lower rotary element of the drive mechanism for reversably rotating the lower rotary element in one or the other of a pair of opposite rotational directions so as to cause opposite vertical movement of the lengthwise portions of the endless drive element in one of downward and upward directions and cause corresponding downward and upward reciprocal movement of the ball holder tube with the one lengthwise portion of the endless drive member relative to the top opening of the housing through a ball receiving and positioning cycle in which as the ball holder tube moves with the closer lengthwise portion of the endless drive element in the downward direction the ball holder tube moves downward through the top opening of the housing and the upper end portion of the ball holder tube is lowered to a ball receiving position across the top opening of the housing for receiving a ball from the ball feeding means and supporting the ball on the upper end of the ball holder tube and then as the ball holder tube moves with the one lengthwise portion of the endless drive element in the upward direction the ball holder tube moves upward through the top opening of the housing and the upper end portion of the ball holder tube with a ball supported thereon is raised to a ball hitting position spaced above the housing.
The present invention also is directed to an automated batting tee apparatus which comprises: (a) a housing which includes (i) a base for resting on the ground, (ii) an enclosure having an inner shell attached at a bottom end on the base and extending upright therefrom to an open top end of the inner shell and an outer shell adapted to removably vertically slidably fit from above over and substantially cover the inner shell and extend from above the open top end of the inner shell downward toward the base, the outer shell having a top wall overlying the open top end of the inner shell and a top opening defined therein, and (iii) an upright frame having an upper portion attached to the top wall of the outer shell and extending downward therefrom in the enclosure such that the upright frame is vertically movable with the outer shell relative to the inner shell; (b) means for feeding balls one at a time to above the top opening of the outer shell of the enclosure; (c) an elongated ball holder tube forming a batting tee disposed upright in the enclosure and aligned with the top opening of the outer shell of the enclosure, the ball holder tube having an upper end portion for receiving a ball from the ball feeding means and a lower end portion spaced below the upper end portion; and (d) drive means in the enclosure mounted on the upright frame for supporting the ball holder tube and causing repetitive reciprocal movements of the ball holder tube in downward and upward directions relative to the top opening of the outer shell of the enclosure so as to move the ball holder tube through a repetitive ball receiving and positioning cycle in which as the ball holder tube is moved in the downward direction the ball holder tube moves downward through the top opening of the outer shell of the enclosure and the upper end of the ball holder tube is lowered to a ball receiving position across the top opening of the top wall of the outer shell of the enclosure for receiving a ball from the ball feeding means and supporting the ball on the upper end portion of the ball holder tube and then as the ball holder tube is moved in the upward direction the ball holder tube moves upward through the top opening of the outer shell of the enclosure and the upper end portion of the ball holder tube with a ball supported thereon is raised to a ball hitting position spaced above the top wall of the outer shell of the enclosure.
The present invention further is directed to an automated batting tee apparatus which comprises: (a) a housing having a top opening and opposite upper and lower portions; (b) means for feeding balls one at a time to above the top opening of the housing; (c) an elongated ball holder tube forming a batting tee disposed upright in the housing and aligned with the top opening of the housing, the ball holder tube having an upper end portion for receiving a ball from the ball feeding means and a lower end portion spaced below the upper end portion; (d) a drive mechanism in the housing for supporting the ball holder tube and being operable to cause repetitive reciprocal movements of the ball holder tube in downward and upward directions relative to the top opening of the housing so as to move the ball holder tube through a repetitive ball receiving and positioning cycle in which as the ball holder tube is moved in the downward direction the ball holder tube moves downward through the top opening of the housing and the upper end of the ball holder tube is lowered to a ball receiving position across the top opening of the housing for receiving a ball from the ball feeding means and supporting the ball on the upper end portion of the ball holder tube and then as the ball holder tube is moved in the upward direction the ball holder tube moves upward through the top opening of the housing and the upper end portion of the ball holder tube with a ball supported thereon is raised to a ball hitting position spaced above the housing; and (e) control means for controlling operation of the drive means and being convertable between first and second conditions to selectively operate the drive mechanism in either an automatic mode and a timed mode in moving the ball holder tube repetitively in the ball receiving and positioning cycle between the ball receiving and hitting positions thereof.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described an illustrative embodiment of the invention.